When Steve saw that it was Alex, he tensed up, wondering what had happened to Thor.
Then, seeing the Infinity Gauntlet on Alex's hand, he relaxed a little. The Mind Stone had already been destroyed. No matter what the Conqueror intended to do with the Infinity Stones, it was no longer possible.
Wanda and Vision came over to Captain America.
The two of them had only joined the Avengers after the Battle of New York.
So they had never met Alex before.
"Captain, is this the Conqueror?", Wanda asked, looking at Alex with a hint of curiosity.
Alex was looking at her as well, 'Mm, she's even prettier than she was in the movie.'
'What a shame.'
'Such a nice girl, and she ended up falling for a clanker.'
'I really don't get it.'
While thinking this, Alex didn't stop what he was doing.
He raised the hand wearing the Infinity Gauntlet, causing the Time Stone to glow with green light.
Several green rings immediately appeared around his hand.
As he turned his wrist, everyone heard the sound of wind rising beyond the forest.
"What's going on?"
"The wind's picking up?"
Steve suddenly had a bad feeling. He looked toward the edge of the forest and saw dust appear out of nowhere before reversing direction and rushing back.
Then a ball of white light appeared in the clearing. It started as a gentle glow, but in the blink of an eye it became dazzlingly bright.
They quickly shielded their eyes. Through the glare, they could vaguely see both the white light and the raging wind converging toward a single point.
Then tiny yellow specks of light appeared in the air.
Wanda suddenly realized they weren't yellow lights at all.
They were fragments of the Mind Stone.
In the next instant, every fragment came together, merging into an oval-shaped gem.
The Mind Stone!
"No!"
"How is this possible!"
Steve and Wanda cried out.
Vision's expression turned solemn as he looked at the Time Stone on the Infinity Gauntlet.
At that moment, the Mind Stone flew toward Alex.
Alex caught it and placed it over the last empty socket on the Infinity Gauntlet.
The Mind Stone embedded itself into the gauntlet on its own.
Instantly, Alex felt an enormous surge of energy flowing through his body.
The power was so immense that it felt as though it would tear his body apart.
He let out a muffled grunt, took a deep breath, and unleashed his own power to resist it.
BOOM!
Dark crimson aura erupted from Alex like a volcano, shooting high into the sky.
Rumble!
The entire forest shook violently.
Trees, rocks, everything began collapsing.
Falcon let out a groan. His legs gave way, and he collapsed onto the ground.
His whole body trembled, cold sweat pouring down as though he were facing a natural predator. He felt completely weak, unable to muster even a trace of strength.
Without his gear, Falcon was just an ordinary man. Neither his mind nor his body could compare to the other superheroes.
Steve fared somewhat better.
After all, he was a Super Soldier, and years of battle had tempered both his mind and body.
Under the terrifying pressure released by Alex, his entire body turned cold and his muscles trembled slightly, but he wasn't in as miserable a state as Falcon.
Wanda instinctively protected herself with Chaos Magic.
She managed to withstand the pressure Alex released, but the astonishment in her eyes was impossible to hide. If she hadn't seen it with her own eyes, she would never have believed that a human could release such terrifying power and presence.
As a super android, Vision did not experience fear the way humans did.
Instead, he began analyzing Alex's power, only to end up with a result that could not be analyzed.
Moreover, that attempt had nearly burned out his components and circuits, leaving even him deeply shocked.
None of them knew that the power Alex was releasing was the result of his divine power operating at 200% output.
If he wished, that tremendous power could bring catastrophic destruction to this planet.
But at the moment, he was using it to resist the backlash of the Infinity Stones.
Once he had barely stabilized things, Alex activated Absolute Domain.
The moment this conceptual defensive field came into effect, the Stones' influence dropped.
Only after he felt he had reached a certain balance with the Infinity Stones did Alex look around.
The forest had collapsed. The stream had changed course. Trees had fallen, and rocks had shattered.
Under the unconscious release of Alex's power, vast sections of the mountainside had become torrents of trees and rocks cascading wildly downhill.
Shuri was still being held around the waist by Alex, so she hadn't fallen.
But because she was so close to him, she was bearing the greatest pressure. Her whole body had gone limp, and she couldn't move even a finger.
If someone wanted to do anything to her right now, she wouldn't have the strength to resist at all.
"Sorry."
"That took a little while."
"But it's done now."
Alex smiled as he looked around.
Vision was floating in the air with Falcon on his back, while Wanda used Chaos Magic to guide Steve safely to the ground.
"Now then."
"It's time to settle things between us."
"But let's change locations first."
With a thought from Alex, the Space Stone lit up.
Several clusters of black-blue flames appeared, enveloping Alex, Vision, and the others.
———
When they stepped out of the black-blue flames, they had already arrived at the battlefield where they had fought Thanos's army earlier.
By then, Thanos's forces were nowhere to be seen.
Those alien soldiers had left behind countless corpses. The survivors had already retreated with Proxima Midnight and the others, and the alien warships were no longer visible in the distant forest.
Black Panther was gathering his army, reforming the Black Iron Tide, and was just preparing to head into the forest as reinforcements.
Then he saw Alex and Steve's group emerge from the black-blue flames, T'Challa froze for a moment.
He then assembled the Royal Guard, the Border Tribe forces, and every Black Iron Tide robot, bringing them to Alex's side.
"Lord Conqueror."
Hearing T'Challa's voice, Alex smiled and set Shuri down, "Take care of your sister."
T'Challa took Shuri, checked her over, and found that she wasn't seriously injured.
He handed her over to one of the royal guards to look after before walking to Alex's side.
The King of Wakanda firmly stood on Alex's side.
Alex nodded in satisfaction before turning his gaze toward Captain America and the other Avengers.
Just then, thunder roared across the sky.
Amid flashes of lightning, Thor descended from the heavens with Stormbreaker in hand, landing beside Steve and the others.
Immediately afterward, Loki, Rocket, and Groot also gathered on the Avengers' side.
"Looks like you guys messed things up."
Rocket immediately sensed that the Avengers' morale was low.
Steve gave a slight nod, "We destroyed the Mind Stone, but the Conqueror used some method to restore it. Now he's collected all the Infinity Stones."
Thor tightened his grip on Stormbreaker, "It doesn't matter. We'll just take the Stones back."
Alex chuckled, "Your courage is admirable."
"Too bad you can't."
"I said so."
At that moment, someone spoke.
"What if you add us?"